Apple Releases tvOS 15.4
15 MARCH 2022 - Apple on Monday released tvOS 15.4. MacRumors notes a few notable changes for the set-side box. According to the piece, the update “introduces an ‘Up Next’ queue directly to the video player to make it easier to get from show to show” while watching shows. It’s also got “a new volume button that's accessible from the video player…” The “Tap to Navigate” feature “has returned as an accessibility option,” according to the piece. And the spatial audio controls have also been redesigned.
If you’re a travelin’ type who likes to tote your Apple TV with you, MacRumors says:
The update adds support for captive Wi-Fi networks, which means that an iPhone or iPad can be used to connect your Apple TV to networks that require additional sign-in steps, such as in hotel rooms.
All of that, plus “the ability to display HomeKit cameras in Picture in Picture mode while watching TV,” and 21 security fixes to boot! You can get the tvOS 15.4 update in Settings > System > Software Update on the streaming device. Or, if you have it set to update automatically, it should update automatically.
Apple Outs HomePod Software 15.4
15 MARCH 2022 - Apple’s sort of smart speaker got a bit more smarts on Monday. That’s when the Cupertino-company released HomePod Software 15.4. Not unlike the tvOS update, MacRumors says the update for HomePod and HomePod mini:
…brings support for captive WiFi networks, so that users can connect to a HomePod on a network that needs additional steps to sign in.
Additionally, not unlike everything else through which Siri speaks, the less gendered voice for Apple’s virtual assistant has found a home in the HomePod line. HomePod Software 15.4 should update automatically. Folks who lack that patience (or folks who’ve disabled automatic updates) can force an update though the Home app on an associated iOS or iPadOS device.
Counterpoint: Apple Watch Owned the Global Smartwatch Space in 2021
15 MARCH 2022 - Apple Watch’s time at the top continues. Apple Insider has new numbers from Counterpoint Research that show Cupertino’s chronometer crushing the competition. According to the company’s list of the top-nine (?) smartwatch makers in 2021:
1. Apple 30.1%
2. Samsung 10.2%
3. Huawei 7.7%
And the rest of it’s noise. I’m kidding. noise came in at number-nine. Never heard of them. Doesn’t really matter. The point is, Apple Watch is miles ahead of the competition, though it did lose about a tenth-of-a-mile in its lead. Apple’s share of the smartwatch space was 32.9% in 2020, a bit bigger than last year’s 30.1%. That does not indicate waning interest in Apple Watch, though. Rather, Apple’s shrinkage was due to growth in such wearables across the board. The global smartwatch market is estimated to have grown 24% from the end of 2020 to the end 2021, according to Counterpoint. That growth was driven largely by sub-$100 devices.
Image: Counterpoint Research
ReelGood: Apple TV+ Series “Servance” Was Most Streamed Series in First Week of March
15 MARCH 2022 - If you’ve spent the last few weeks watching the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” you are very much not alone. The folks at Reelgood say for the week of 3 March though 9 March, the Adam Scott/John Turturro/Christopher Walken show was the most streamed series among its millions of U.S. users.
Top series, though not the top title. The most streamed property for the week was the Ryan Reynolds movie Free Guy. “Severance” was second, by Reelgood’s reckoning. That put it ahead of such series as “Euphoria” and “Our Flag Means Death,” and such films as West Side Story and The King’s Man.
Apple TV+ Releases Trailer for “They Call Me Magic”
15 MARCH 2022 - The first trailer for Apple’s Magic Johnson docuseries is out. Engadget has word of the trailer for the four-part series, “They Call Me Magic.”
Magic features prominently in the series itself, though a lot of other big names take part. Among them are Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and former President Barack Obama. While a documentary about one of the greatest basketball players of all-time will feature a fair amount of sports, Engadget says, from the looks of the trailer, the series “spends just as much time celebrating Johnson’s activism and family life as it does his all-star career.”
I will say, this trailer does have me interested. You can see it for yourself below. “They Call Me Magic” hits Apple TV+ on Friday 22 April.
CODA and “Ted Lasso” Win More Awards
Troy Kotsur - Image via IMDB
15 MARCH 2022 - Awards season is in full swing, and “Ted Lasso” and CODA keep cleaning up. Apple issued a press release Sunday announcing its showing at the Critics Choice Awards. The critics chose CODA once, and “Ted Lasso” four times over.
On the film side, Troy Kotsur took home another trophy for Best Supporting Actor. Should go nicely with his Independent Spirit Award, his Hollywood Critics Association Film Award, and his Screen Actors Guild Award. He’s not guaranteed to win the Oscar for which he’s been nominated, but missing that would come as a surprise at this point.
As for Team Lasso, congrats to:
Brett Goldstein - Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Hannah Waddingham - Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Jason Sudeikis - Best Actor in a Comedy Series
“Ted Lasso” - Best Comedy Series
Also held over the weekend, the British Academy Film (BAFTA) Awards. No, “Ted Lasso” couldn’t win - it’s not a film. CODA is, though, and it took home two BAFTA’s. Apple’s press release on those wins congratulate Siân Heder for winning the Adapted Screenplay award, and Troy Kotsur for taking home the BAFTA for Supporting Actor. Should go nicely with his Independent Spirit Award, his Hollywood Critics Association Film Award, his Screen Actors Guild Award, and his Critics Choice Award.
Morgan Stanley Analyst Impressed with Apple’s “Peek Performance”
A note from another big Apple watcher addressing last week’s “Peek performance” event. That’s the event wherein Apple announced plans to bring baseball to Apple TV+. It’s also where/when the company announced an updated iPhone SE, an updated iPad Air, the new Mac Studio desktop, and the new Studio Display. Reacting to the event - Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty. Apple 3.0 ran part of a note she wrote. Quoting part of that part:
While many of these products won’t necessarily move the needle on a standalone basis (difficult to do for a >$365B revenue company), they will collectively represent tens of millions of incremental product shipments that will help Apple maintain industry-leading retention rates, attract new users (Apple added more new users to the iPhone lineup this fall than in any of the past 5 launches), and grow both hardware and services spend per user…
That, to me, is so insightful. So many analysts and Apple watchers are still looking for the next iPhone. Apple may be too big for that at this point, save something truly revolutionary. And even then, with so many Apple products and services doing as well as they are, would we even be able to make out how big the next big thing is when it hits? So often, I like the way she thinks.
Huberty has an “Overweight” rating on Apple shares. While she’s maintaining her firm’s price target on the shares of $210, she and hers see upside to their previous expectations around iPhone and the Mac.
Evercore’s Daryanani Sees $15-20B for Apple from 5G iPhone SE
Image via Apple
Evercore analyst Amit Daryanani has taken a few days to consider how big a thing the 5G iPhone SE3 could be for Apple. Apple 3.0 posted part of a note he wrote over the weekend. According to that, he and his think Apple could ship more than 35-million of the new iPhone SEs in their first year of availability. That’s based on historical growth that we can, unfortunately, not check. He and his estimate the first iPhone SE sold ~25M units in its first year. They think the second sold ~29M units in year-one. Assuming similar growth lands the analyst at 35-million or more this time around. And that could be a decent amount of dosh, even for a company as big as Apple. According to the analyst:
At a blended ASP of ~$450 or modestly higher given a higher base price, shipments at that volume could generate an additional ~$15-20B in annual revenues (approx. ~4-5% of total sales).
Daryanani has an “Outperform” rating on Apple shares. His price target on the shares is $210.
A Check on Wait Times for New Apple Hardware
Image via Apple Store Online
When new products go up for order, it can be interesting (if not altogether informative) to see what’s still available day-one and what would require a bit of patience. To that end, I hit Apple’s site to check availability for iPad Air, the green hued models in the iPhone 13 line, and iPhone SE. Of the products Apple put up for pre-order on Friday, the one playing hard to get is the one that (at first glance, anyway) seems the least exciting.
Checking Sunday afternoon, shipping times for iPhone SE had slipped to the end of this month. Running a check of every color, carrier unlocked, in every storage capacity showed the phone landing in the hands of a would be buyer on 29 March for free shipping. Consumers could have it by 28 March if they were willing to pay eight-bucks for expedited shipping. That said, at least for my local Apple Store, I could have placed an order online and picked it up in store this Friday 18 March, so that may be an option for you as well.
Moving to the updated iPad Air, if you’re cool with wifi-only, ordering Sunday afternoon would have made you a day-one user. Shipping times for 64GB and 256GB models in several colors showed delivery this Friday 18 March. Add cellular though, and you might be adding time as well. For the 256GB models, wifi + cellular showed a delivery window of 29 March through 5 April. Drop the storage down to 64GB though, and you’d still be surfing this Friday. At least that was the case as of Sunday.
All of the green iPhone 13s I checked, from the mini to the Pro Max, showed availability this Friday. That said, I will confess that I’m not sure I checked them all. One gets lost after a while.
Though they were made available for pre-order last Tuesday, we may as well check Mac Studio availability as well. There is none. At least not this month. Buying “off the rack,” a base model M1 Max Mac Studio shows a delivery window between 5 April and 12 April. Make it an M1 Ultra and you may be making it May. The window for one of those with no customization opens between 26 April and 3 May. As for Apple’s Studio Display, spending more means waiting more. Buying with the standard glass yields delivery in the second week of April, roughly four-weeks from now. Add $300 for nano-texture glass, and you’re adding another month to a month-and-a-half. Apple’s site offers no hard dates for that one, saying simply “8 - 10 weeks.”
Apple Drops LG UltraFine 5K Display
LG UltraFine 5K Display - Image via BestBuy
If the wait for an Apple Studio Display has you thinking you could just make do with a great big, LG UltraFine 5K display… you’ll have to get it someplace besides Apple. A piece from MacRumors over the weekend says Apple has pulled the 27-inch monitor off of its site. “Following the announcement of the Studio Display,” the piece says:
…Apple has removed the UltraFine 5K display from its online store, now only listing the 23.7-inch UltraFine 4K display starting at $699. LG's own website also lists the UltraFine 5K display as sold out, and it's not entirely clear if the display will be restocked anytime soon.
COVID Lockdowns in Shenzhen May Ripple Supply Chain Again
You know what could lengthen the already long wait times for Mac Studio even more? COVID-19. I don’t want to be a “Danny Downer,” so I’ll let Apple Insider do it. That site has news of new COVID lockdowns in Shenzhen, China that it says could “potentially” impact manufacturers and shipments.
According to the piece, the government in China has put Shenzhen in lockdown due to a surge in COVID infections in Hong Kong. “Under the order,” the piece says:
…everyone in [Shenzhen], which has a population of 17.5 million people, will face three rounds of testing, as part of a “zero tolerance” strategy against the virus.
With the exception of companies supplying food, fuel, and essential goods or services, all businesses were ordered to close or implement work-from-home policies. It is expected that the lockdown will persist until March 20 at the earliest.
Shenzhen Lockdown Stops iPhone Production There
Knowing that that had happened, a story a few hours later from 9 to 5 Mac really can’t be a surprise, and yet I had the temerity, the audacity, the unmitigated gaul to go ahead and be surprised anyway. Since iPhones are not food nor fuel nor essential goods ’n’ services, their Shenzhen production has been stopped. “As reported by Bloomberg,” says 9 to 5 Mac:
…the lockdown has led Foxconn to suspend operations at two of its campuses in Shenzhen. To reduce the impact of the lockdown, the company has relocated production to other sites that are still operating regularly.
No telling what that means for anything Apple makes, since Apple keeps what it makes where super-secret. Be ready though to throw near term delivery expectations out the window.
[CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said that the Shenzhen lockdown equated to the shuttering of “iPhone City,” a nickname for Foxconn’s largest iPhone production plant in China. My bad. “iPhone City” is in Zhengzhou, not Shenzhen.]
Apple Signs Letter Against Recent Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation
Image by Janet Reddick from Pixabay
Apple and a number of tech companies are making an appeal to states enacting anti-LGBTQ+ laws across the country. The short version: knock it off.
9 to 5 Mac highlights a report from The Texas Tribune. That had a number of companies, including Apple, Google, IBM, and Meta, signing a letter coordinated by the Human Rights Campaign asking Texas Governor Greg Abbott to knock it off. 9 to 5 Mac says Abbott:
…authorized investigations of families who “allow transgender kids to receive gender-affirming care.” Additionally, Texas and Abbott have a history of other pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and anti-women’s rights legislation.
Because - you know… small government or something.
Quoting part of the letter signed by the companies:
The recent attempt to criminalize a parent for helping their transgender child access medically necessary, age-appropriate healthcare in the state of Texas goes against the values of our companies… This policy creates fear for employees and their families, especially those with transgender children, who might now be faced with choosing to provide the best possible medical care for their children but risk having those children removed by child protective services for doing so.
We call on our public leaders — in Texas and across the country — to abandon efforts to write discrimination into law and policy… It’s not just wrong, it has an impact on our employees, our customers, their families, and our work.
Ahead of the letter, which ran as a full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News on Friday, Apple CEO Tim Cook posted a message to Twitter, saying:
As a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, I am deeply concerned about laws being enacted across the country, particularly those focused on our vulnerable youth. I stand with them and the families, loved ones, and allies who support them.
Ming-Chi Kuo: Only iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max to Get A16 Processor
There’s a rumor out there that I’d normally ignore - except for the person from whom it comes. MacRumors has TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo saying that Apple may save its best processors for iPhone for the high-end of the line come the next round. According to Young MC, the two phones at the “Pro” end of the iPhone 14 line will sport an as yet unreleased and unannounced A16 processor, while the two phones at the consumer end will stay with the current A15.
I guess that’s one way to get people to spend more. IDK… while he’s often right, he’s not always right. We’ll see what happens in six or seven months.
Evercore’s Daryanani Excited for Apple TV+ to Play Ball
Evercore analyst Amit Daryanani is really stoked about Apple’s Friday Night Baseball announcement. That’s the one that’ll give Apple TV+ subscribers two, live Major League Baseball games every Friday night during the regular season, plus a lot of other baseball related content.
Benzinga (via Yahoo Finance) has been through Daryanani’s thoughts on the announcement, stripped out most of the words, and posted his thinking as bullet points. Basically, what he thinks people get wrong about Apple TV+ is their assumption that Apple wants Apple TV+ to be Netflix. Most of the criticism of the Cupertino-streamer is “rooted in misunderstanding Apple's actual intentions,” reads the post. According to Benzinga, Daryanani continues:
…to see TV+ as an excellent way to further Apple's goal of monetizing its installed base, which could eventually help shrink replacement cycles for hardware and provide a “potential killer app” for AR/VR.
Daryanani has an “Outperform” rating on Apple shares. His price target on the shares is $210.
Baseball on Apple TV+: Now with a Start Date!
Good news, by the way, for baseball fans, Apple fans, and for Apple: Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+ has a start date. Apple’s baseball announcement last week was kind of funny. It said that the service would be available “as soon as the regular season begins.” As a piece from iDownloadBlog explains:
When that announcement was made by Apple, (…) MLB and MLB Players Association were still in a pretty heated labor dispute, which had already led to the delay of Spring Training games.
In other words, when Apple made the announcement last week, it wasn’t 100-percent that there would be a baseball season to watch. They’ve settled their dispute, though. And on Friday, the piece says, “the official Apple TV+ Twitter account confirmed (…) Friday Night Baseball will start streaming on Friday, April 8, 2022.”
Report: Buying Through iTunes and App Store “Turned Off” for Russia
It appears that Apple’s digital online stores are closed to Russia. MacRumors highlights a report from the Russian site iPhones.ru. According to the piece:
…iTunes and App Store purchases can no longer be made by Apple device users located in Russia, leaving them unable to pay for apps, media, or Apple services.
Adding money to store accounts using regional bank cards is reportedly not working. Adding funds to online accounts through Apple gift cards will not work either, according to the piece. MacRumors says:
It's not clear whether the issue is a result of action by Apple, Russian banks, or the Russian government. If confirmed however, as it stands, users in Russia seemingly now have no way to make purchases in the App Store or the iTunes Store.
Russia Considers Nationalizing Assets and Offices Left by Apple and Others
Image by Дмитрий Осипенко from Pixabay
Any businesses that left stuff behind when they stopped doing business in Russia - looks like that stuff will be Russia’s, soon. Apple Insider highlights a piece from The Washington Post saying the country “is moving forward with a plan to nationalize assets left behind by Western firms like Apple that have departed the country.”
For Apple, this is probably not a huge deal. Yes, the Cupertino-company did just open an office or offices there last month. That said, Apple has no stores in Russia and does no manufacturing there, so it’s hard to see how the move would have a major physical impact on Apple. Could be a lot worse for a lot of other companies though, including Ikea, Microsoft, IBM, Toyota, McDonald's, and H&M - all of which Russia is eyeing for nationalization, in addition to Apple. Assuming the move passes, which seems like a given, Apple Insider says the Putin-endorsed plan:
…would allow the government to request court orders to impose external management on factories, shops, and other facilities left behind by companies that have fled Russia…
Putin’s people have said the nationalization move would “prevent bankruptcy and preserve jobs.” The government would run the businesses for about three-months. Past that, the businesses could go up for auction. Or… you know… businesses could come back and pick up where they left off. Either that or they could “sell their assets in a manner that preserves jobs and business activities,” according to the report.
MacPaw Development Foundation Seeks Donations for Ukrainian Relief
When Russia rolled into Ukraine a couple of weeks ago, I told you about a statement from MacPaw, an Apple developer based in Kyiv. If you’re not familiar with them, a piece from 9 to 5 Mac says they’re the crew behind SetApp, ClearVPN, and CleanMyMacX, which advertised on Mac OS Ken a while back. The statement a couple of weeks ago was impressive because, while their country was being invaded, the people from MacPaw were talking about how they intended to keep serving their customers. Now, they’re asking others help Ukraine.
According to 9 to 5 Mac, “the MacPaw Development Foundation [has] started accepting outside donations to help fund humanitarian aid to Ukrainians in war zones.” This is not a new organization. The piece says:
The MacPaw Development Foundation is [a nongovernmental organization] that has been supporting the company’s social projects within the MacPawCares initiative since 2016. In just the last year, MacPawCares completed more than 30 social projects in Ukraine, but now it has turned its full attention to supporting Ukraine relief since Russia invaded two weeks ago…
Their pitch is that, unlike larger charitable organizations, they already have a physical presence and contacts in Ukraine. They’re local and can help the local population, provided they get the help they need to do so.
That is a barebones telling of the plea they’re making. You can find out more at humanitarian-aid.macpaw.com.
Geekbench Tests Show iPhone SE Nearly as Fast as iPhone 13
Image via Apple
I saw a headline on Apple Insider Thursday that made me feel like an idiot: “New iPhone SE delivers iPhone 13 performance for $270 less.”
Boy do I feel like an idiot. No need, though. It turns out what they’re talking about are Geekbench test scores - basically how the processors in the models match up. Since they’re the same processor, they have practically the same performance. The single-core score for iPhone SE is 1695 versus 1729 for the single-core iPhone 13. The SE’s multi-core performance comes in at 4021 versus iPhone 13’s multi-core score of 4532.
Of course, as the piece goes on to point out, Geekbench is a processor benchmarking system specifically. Chances are slim that you’re choosing a phone based simply on how fast it is. The extra dosh for an iPhone 13 gets one a bigger screen, a better camera array, MagSafe, Face ID, more storage to start, a better display, and a bigger display - even if you go with an iPhone 13 mini.
If you’re buying just for the speed of the processor though, the “New iPhone SE delivers iPhone 13 performance for $270 less.”
Google Messages Starts Translating iOS Tapbacks
iOS tapbacks have infiltrated the Android army.
I had a friend who had an Android phone - top-of-the-line Samsung… something. He got a message from a friend of ours with an iPhone, showed it to me and said, “What the expletive is this expletive?!?” He was referring to the iOS reactions that have amused iPhone users (Allison Sheridan not included) and annoyed Android users for years.
Now Android users can join in the fun. A piece from Engadget has Google saying in a blog post that it’s “rolling out a feature for [Google] Messages that translates iMessaging ‘Tapbacks’ as emojis.” That’ll hit Android devices set to English first, followed by additional languages at a later time.
If you’ve not seen the expletive to which my friend referred, Engadget says:
Until now, a “thumbs up” to a text that says “see you in ten?” sent from an iPhone would be translated to “liked ‘see you in ten?’”, for example. With the new feature, Android users receive emojis instead, though they may not match exactly what was sent — a “heart” reaction yields the “face with the heart eyes,” for instance. To make that clear to the user, they'll also see “translated from iOS.”
Sony Offers PS4 Owners Three-Month Apple TV+ Trial
PlayStation 4 Owners have a new offer for Apple TV+. MacRumors says the console maker Sony is offering a three-month free trial of Apple’s over-the-top service to new subscribers only. According to the piece:
Interested users can download the Apple TV app from the PS4 TV and Video section, and then follow the on-screen instructions. An Apple ID will be required to redeem the deal, as will a PlayStation Network account.
If you’re wondering PS5 owners have been cut out, they have not. They actually have access to a six-month free trial, according to the report.